Farmers’ Union Kisan Sena said thousands of its members from western Uttar Pradesh would march to Delhi today in favour of the Center’s latest agricultural legislation.
The march would bring together members from the Braj region, which includes districts such as Mathura, Agra, Firozabad, Hathras, as well as supporters from Meerut and Muzaffarnagar in the western UP, the union said.
“We have written to the authorities concerned for permission regarding our march to Delhi but have not got reply. In any case, around 20,000 of Kisan Sena supporters will be en route to Delhi to meet Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar on Thursday,” said Kisan Sena convenor Thakur Gauri Shankar Singh to PTI.
“We want to meet the Minister and tell him that there is no question that the current protests on Delhi’s borders by the Punjab and Haryana unions include farmers, but they do not represent farmers. He added that his party would remind the government of issues impacting farmers in other states and in the UP.
Asked if his union members were not allowed to travel to Delhi, he said the situation would be dealt with as per the conditions on Thursday, but reiterated that he would go ahead with the scheduled march.
The Kisan Sena march is expected, even as the farmers’ union including the Bharatiya Kisan Union and its UP splinter groups have remained in Ghaziabad and Noida for more than three weeks now. The protesters who have gathered in Ghaziabad and Noida want to go to Delhi to join the bigger stir called chiefly by farmer unions of Punjab and Haryana.
Thousands of farmers are currently staying put at Delhi’s borders with Haryana and Uttar Pradesh in protest against the Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020, the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020 and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020.